I had a business trip to Brisbane, so we flew tp “Brissy” the prior Friday and drove a couple of hours south to Byron Bay for the weekend. Byron Bay is past the Gold Coast and is across the Queensland border in the state of New South Wales (and worth the extra hour drive). Byron Bay has the reputation to be the place where the rich and famous go – it is but is very understated with no high rises or new malls. Pretty much a perfect beach that faces north away from the straight line waves of the Pacific.
Whale Watching
We had a couple of choices of things to do – settled on a whale watching tour as it was still pretty chilly and snorkeling or going in the ocean was more energy than we wanted to expend. It is also the whale migration season so the chances of seeing one seemed high. The trip worked well – we saw whales about 10 minutes into the trip and over the course of couple of hours saw 15-20 whales, including a couple in a fight over territory. Great sunny morning as well.
Byron Bay Beach
Finished the day at the beach and hiked up to the lighthouse which overlooked the Pacific proper on the most eastern point of Australia. Saw whales from the shore – lots of them moving north up the coast – and saw a pod of dolphins surfing from the cliffs above.
Sunday was a bit of a washout with rain most of the day – we worked our way up the coast exploring the different beach cities like Cabarita Beach before meeting a friend in Brisbane for dinner.
